United Nations in Ghana takes its NoManel campaign to the public as Ghana kick-starts 16-Days of activism

To kick start the campaign, the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection led key stakeholders, including the United Nations in Ghana, to officially launch the period. The event was attended by several Heads of UN agencies, ambassadors, development partners, youth groups and students.

In a solidarity message, the UN Resident Coordinator, Mr. Charles Abani noted that gender-based violence is a “shadow pandemic” which violates the human right of victims and poses many threats to families and societies. He said violence against women and girls in all forms is an outrage, and it must stop”, adding that only by ensuring their inclusion in decision-making can we bring about the change we want to see. He therefore, called on the parliament of Ghana to prioritise passing and acting on the Affirmative Action Bill to ensure gender balance in decision-making. He further reaffirmed UN’s continuous support to the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection, Civil Society Organizations and other relevant stakeholders in the fight to achieve gender equality.

The Chairperson for the UN Gender Team, Ms. Ifeoma Charles-Monwuba presented the #NoManel campaign, a UN in Ghana-led initiative to encourage and influence the inclusion of women and girls in speaking engagements and decision-making processes. Explaining the rationale behind the initiative, Ms. Charles-Monwuba noted that for a country like Ghana that has qualified females in all spheres, it is only prudent to have these women seated on every decision-making table. She advised that to ensure gender balance, everything in the society should be seen from the gender perspective. In support of the #NoManels initiative, the over 200 audience at the event took a pledge to drive the campaign of ensuring the participation and representation of women at meetings and processes in Ghana.

In a keynote address read on her behalf by the Chief Director at the Ministry of Gender, Dr. Afisah Zakariah, the Acting Minister of Gender, Hon. Cecilia Abena Dapaah said gender-based violence continues to be a barrier to achieving gender equality (SDG 5) despite the many interventions to end the menace.  This, according to her, calls for a study to determine factors and measures that are proving effective and that could be scaled up. She encouraged the public and agencies to sustain the campaign by blowing the whistle against violence on women and girls even long after the 16 days period. 

The launch was also honored by the Australian High Commissioner to Ghana and the Spanish Ambassador to Ghana who took turns to render their country’s support and commitment to end gender-based violence.

This year’s campaign is being observed under the theme “Orange the World: End Violence against Women Now." Activities planned during this period include a walk on major streets in Accra calling for an end to gender-based violence, social media campaign on UN platforms, community engagement and street campaign on awareness creation.